A year ago this weekend, Michigan health officials announced a Salmonella outbreak that would eventually grow to include 22 cases in six states. Among those sickened were diners at at a restaurant in Macomb County, Mich. who ate a raw ground beef dish called kibbe.
Kibbe is a Middle Eastern dish made from bulgar, minced onions and ground meat that is often stuffed into croquettes and fried, but is sometimes served raw, as it was at the restaurant that was never named by public health agencies. Raw kibbe seems to be popular in Maycomb County, which includes the cities of Troy and Sterling Heights, where at least 13 restaurants featured it on their menus at the time of the outbreak compared with one in the Twin Cities and 21 in New York City.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that consumers do not eat raw meat because dangerous bacteria such as Salmonella and E.coli can only be killed when meat is fully cooked.
The contaminated meat was sold by Jouni Meats, Inc. in Sterling Heights and Gab Halal Foods in Troy. Both companies issued recalls.
The outbreak was the ninth-largest multi-state outbreak of 2013. The case counts by state were as follows: Arizona (1), Iowa (1), Illinois (2), Michigan (9), Pennsylvania (1), and Wisconsin (8). The CDC declared the outbreak over on March 15.
